Note for July 21, 01: - Me and Colin left from the summit of Mt. Tyrwhitt to go to the summit of Pocaterra at 12:15. We reached the summit of Pocaterra at 2:00.The weather didn't look to bad, but we saw a couple of storms around us so we decided to only stay at the summit for a few minutes. When we got back to Mt. Tyrwhitt, we got hit by a storm and got close to getting zapped by lightening.

Dates Summited - July 21, 01

Elevation -2934m(9,626Ft.)

Elevation Gain - 710m

Location - Highwood Area

July 21, 01- After descending back down from Mt. Tyrwhitt, and rising up to climb Mt. Pocaterra, we came across this pinnacle. Here I am climbing around on it.

July 21, 01- Once you scramble the ridge from Tyrwhitt for around an hour and a half you will be mighty close to the summit and have what is left in this picture to carefully climb. In most parts on this summit ridge a fall to the right would probably be fatal. A slip to the left would really hurt. Care must be taken. We could have traversed farther below this ridge on the left side but this looked like it would be the most fun.

July 21, 01- Here I am on the summit of Mt. Pocaterra, with the summit of Mt. Tyrwhitt in the background. I couldn't find the summit register. Isn't that odd? Maybe somebody stole it.

July 21, 01- Here is Colin on the summit with the ridge we took to ascend in the background.

After taking a nice, slow traverse back to Mt. Tyrwhitt we noticed a storm coming in from the Elk Valley. When we started hearing thunder and seeing lightening we ran towards the top of Tywhitt so we could descend back to the valley. (That was our only possible descend route) Right before the summit of Tywhitt we got blasted by the storm. I saw electrical zaps coming from my finger tips and heard a weird buzzing noise. I had heard of this happening before and knew that if I didn't get to lower ground really soon I was about to be fried by lightening. I told Colin to come down to the cliffs right below the summit on the Pocaterra side. The zaps in my fingers stopped. We waited there for about two minutes then realized that the storm wasn't going to pass. We decided to climb up to the summit as fast as we could then run down the mountain to the pass. When we were running past the summit, the whole top of the mountain was buzzing with electricity and making a loud generator sound. It sounded like the cairn was about to explode. The zaps at my finger tips returned as we ran past the summit. I seriously thought I was done for. We descended back to the window within 10 to 15 seconds. We were in the trees from the summit in 15 minutes. Because of the adrenaline and the rush to get away from the top of the mountains we were running as fast as we could down the mountain. That led to many falls and many leg scratches. My shorts and legs were covered in blood by the time we got back down to the valley. I would much rather have that than to have been zapped by lightening though!

July 21, 01- Here is a picture to explain things. This is where we ran into trouble. This picture was taken on the ascent of Mt. Pocaterra, not the descent. That is why the storm is not in the picture. After descending the hump (Right of the photo) we heard the lightening come in and knew that we should fasten our pace up. After following the ridge to get to the top, I saw the zaps at the end of my fingers. We then traversed right below the cliffs and waited there for a couple minutes. After realizing the storm wasn't going to led up we climbed straight up to the top and ran back down the other side.